DEX by DEX, part 6 — Aster and the copy-trading frontier
Every venue so far offered vaults — pooled money. But copy trading proper, where your own account mirrors a trader's moves, has been a CEX feature. Aster is bringing it on-chain. The finale of the series, and the full map.
Five parts in, every venue we've looked at offered some kind of vault — pooled money, one pot. But there's another way to "ride a pro" that we haven't seen on-chain yet: copy trading proper, where your own account automatically mirrors a chosen trader's positions, and you keep custody and per-trade control. That's been a centralized-exchange feature — it's literally where this blog started. On-chain, it has barely existed. That's starting to change.
Aster brings copy trading on-chain
Aster, currently the #2 perp DEX by volume (~$20B in a busy week), has signaled a "Smart Money" copy-trading tool for 2026. If it ships well, it would be one of the first serious on-chain implementations of true mirror-the-trader copy trading — distinct from the pooled-vault model that dominates everywhere else.
Copy trading vs. vaults, one more time
The distinction matters, and it's worth repeating from the earlier piece: copy trading is your own car following the leader's GPS — funds stay in your account, you can size down or stop, but your fills arrive after the leader's and can slip. A vault is the bus — pooled, you get the leader's exact fills, but you give up custody and per-trade control. Aster is betting on-chain users want the car; Hyperliquid built the bus. Both are valid; they fail and shine in different places.
The full map
Step back, and the on-chain "ride a pro" landscape is finally legible:
- House pools (you're the casino): GMX, Gains, Jupiter's JLP, dYdX's MegaVault — the dominant on-chain model, and Hyperliquid has one too (HLP).
- Follow-a-trader vaults (you back a manager): essentially just Hyperliquid and Drift — rare, and Hyperliquid is the deepest.
- Options vaults (you sell volatility): Aevo — a different animal entirely.
- Copy trading (your account mirrors a trader): a CEX habit only now arriving on-chain via Aster.
Where that leaves Hyperliquid
After six venues, the picture is clear. If what you want is to back a real, vetted trader, on-chain, with depth and transparency, the field is thin — and Hyperliquid sits at the center of it, now extending the model with programmable HyperEVM vaults and, soon, a curated index on top. The competition is real and healthy — Drift on Solana, Aster on copy trading, the house pools everywhere — but the specific thing this blog cares about, choosing good trader vaults, still has one clear home.
That closes the DEX-by-DEX series. Nothing here is financial advice — one trader mapping the whole territory with public data.